NoahDixonFreedman
by Wendymypooh
Summary: Noah helps a family of runaway is is story #9 in my "A Day In the Life Series"


Noah Dixon lay wearily on his bedroll beside a crackling fire. He gazed up at the night sky, his thoughts drifting as his eyes grew heavier. Just when they started to close, his horse neighed, and then he heard the distinctive sound of a twig snapping.

He was suddenly wide awake. His gun was out and pointing in the direction the noise had come from.

"I know you're out there. Come into the light of the fire where I can see you."

"Please mister, don't shoot." A male voice pleaded.

Noah tightened his grip on his gun as he waited for whoever it was to show himself. Slowly a form began to take shape in the flickering glow of the fire. It turned into four forms by the time they stepped completely out of the darkness and into the firelight.

A Negro family. Man, woman, small child, and an infant. They were dressed in worn, but clean and mended clothing, the man standing slightly in front of his family, shielding them, his hands outstretched in a pleading manner.

Noah lowered his gun. "What are you doing out here in the dark?"

"We're just passing through." The man said. "We were hoping you might share your fire for the night."

"Sure." Noah put his gun away. "I'm Noah. You are?"

"I'm Eton. This is my wife Maisey. Our children Jonah and Daisy. " Eton told him.

"Make yourself comfortable." Noah sat back down on his bedroll.

Eton lowered a burlap bag to the ground and pulled two blankets out of it. He spread one on the ground. His wife placed their sleeping daughter onto the blanket, then gestured for their son to lay down as well. Once he did, she took off the canvas pack she wore on her back, set it on the ground, and then stretched out beside her children. Eton covered all three up with the last blanket.

"May I join you?" Eton asked.

Noah nodded. He set his coffeepot with the rest of the coffee he'd brewed earlier to drink with his supper back into the coals to heat up.

Eton settled onto the ground near Noah's bedroll. He held out his hands to the fire to warm them.

Noah studied him for a couple of moments in silence. "You are runaways, aren't you?"

"We are." Eton met his eyes evenly. "Our master was going to sell Maisey and Daisy. I couldn't allow that to happen, so we ran away."

"No man has the right to hold another in bondage." Noah said.

"Are you one too?" Eton asked.

"No. I was born free. " Noah told him. "My father spent his life helping people like your family get to freedom."

"He gone now?"

Noah nodded. "A couple of years back."

He used the sleeve of his shirt to pull the coffeepot from the coals and poured some in a cup. He offered it to Eton who shook his head. He moved over to the canvas pack his wife had been carrying, rummaged inside it and pulled out a tin cup, before returning to sit by Noah.

Noah poured coffee into it and the two men spent some time talking and enjoying their coffee before they went to sleep.

The Pony Express rider woke the nest morning to the aroma of brewing coffee, potatoes and onions frying in bacon grease, and hoecakes baking.

"Smells good." He complimented Maisey as he slipped on his boots.

"Be ready shortly." Maisey replied as she flipped the hoecakes.

Noah left the campsite to do his morning ablutions. When he came back, he rummaged in his saddlebags and brought out two slightly bruised apples and offered them to Maisey. "Not much, but all I have."

"These apples will make a nice addition to our breakfast. Thank you for your kindness in letting us share your campfire last night and now." Maisey told him.

"You're welcome." Noah smiled at her.

Shortly, the three adults and young Jonah were partaking of the delicious meal Maisey had prepared for them. After, when he was done packing up his gear, Noah dug into his pocket. He counted the money he had and extricated most of it and approached Eton.

"I'd like you to have this." He offered the money to the other man.

"No, I cannot. " Eton protested.

"it will help your family more than it will me." Noah argued. "I have a place to go with people who've become gamily to me. I am on my way back there now. Take it and use it on your journey."

Maisey stepped forward and took the money from him when Eton did not. "Thank you."

Eton shook hands with Noah as the rider mounted his horse.

"I hope you make it safely to wherever you are going." Noah told the couple.

"We wish the same for you." Eton replied as he and Maisey watched Noah swing his horse around and took off down the trail toward Sweetwater at a gallop.


End file.
